BHAKTAPUR, Aug 31: The Gaijatra festival has kicked off in Bhaktapur this morning. People from the Newar community are celebrating this festival with fanfare and amidst the performance of the 'Ghintang Ghisi' dance.

This peculiar dance gives the Gaijatra celebration in Bhaktapur its uniqueness. It is believed that the Gaijatra festival begins after the Guthi office takes out a rally along with the ghintang ghisi dance from the Taumadhu-based Bhairab Temple, circling the cities on the previous evening. People from the Newar community are celebrating Gaijatra by performing this unique dance after taking out the Gaijatra tableau from settlements starting this morning across the district.

The Newar community of Bhaktapur district celebrated Janai Purnima on Wednesday and is celebrating Gaijatra today. The Newar Community here marks this festival in memory of their deceased relatives, wishing for their eternal peace. There is a tradition that devotees participating in the Gaijatra festival have to offer fruits, milk, as well as other food to those involved in the procession in memory of their deceased relatives.

The procession taken out from various houses goes through different places including Durbar Square, Balakhu Ganesh, Chochhe, Bholachhe, Mahalaxmi, Nagpokhari, Nabadurgasthan, Golmadhi, Taumadhi, Itachhe, and Khauma in the district today. In concluding the Jatra, a Tamacha (an effigy) made from straw and a Bhairav dance are taken out from Taumadhi in the evening.

The Jatra concludes after Tamacha taken from the Bhairav Temple in Taumadhi, other Tamachas taken from the same area, and the Tamacha of Nakinju Ajima are taken around the Durbar Square chowk three times after leading them around different places through Bamshagopal.

There is a tradition that other Tamachas are not taken out after the release of the tamachas of Bhairav and Ajima. Various cartoons and caricatures are exhibited during the Jatra. During the week-long Jatra, the ghintang ghisi dance, Hanuman dance, Makapyakha dance, and Jangali dance are performed in various areas of the city. There is a tradition that on the day of Shree Krishna Janmaasthami, hundreds of women dressed in traditional Newari clothing, Hakupatasi, stand in a long queue and go around the villages lighting the lamps.

On that day, after worshiping god Narayan and lighting lamps, children and youths of Bhaktapur with lit oil lamps on their heads and hands pass through Suryamadhi, Dattatraya, Sukuldhola, Taumadhi, Bamshagopal, and Inacho palace. According to the Hindu scripture Padma Puran, since the main gate of Yamalok, the palace of Yamaraj, the Hindu god of death and justice, remains closed throughout the year, after taking out the Gaijatra on earth, the gate opens, allowing departed souls to enter the palace and attain salvation, said culturalist Ram Shekhar Shrestha.

There is a religious belief that the people who have died throughout the year attain salvation by holding the cow's tail when a cow is taken around the city on the occasion, he said. It is said that the Gaijatra started after the then King of Kathmandu, Pratap Malla, ordered the people of the city to conduct a Gaijatra rally through the city in the name of their deceased relatives, so as to make his spouse, who was overwhelmed by the death of their son, feel that the world shares the same grief over the death of their relatives. The Queen could not be consoled even after the Gaijatra was conducted from the houses of local people. So, the King also ordered different types of exhibitions and satirical programs to please her.

 
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